Raleigh Court — The Neighborhood with the Neon Sign

A land development company subdivided the land in 1906. The streetcar arrived in 1915. Roanoke annexed the neighborhood from the county in 1919. By the 1920s, the Memorial Bridge was complete, Grandin Village had emerged as the commercial center, and the Raleigh Court Corporation was buying and selling most of the parcels that would give the place its name. The neighborhood peaked then — not in population, but in form. What was laid down in that decade endured. On July 31, 1948, the streetcar to Raleigh Court stopped running. That date also marked the end of streetcar service citywide. The neighborhood adapted to the automobile but never rebuilt itself around it. The sidewalks stayed. The front porches stayed. The walkability stayed. By the 1970s, pressures on the neighborhood's viability brought residents together to form the Greater Raleigh Court Civic League. Their advocacy work with city agencies earned recognition: in 1992, Neighborhoods USA named Raleigh Court Neighborhood of the Year. In 2010, an apartment building on Windsor Avenue and Brunswick Street was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Grandin Village along Memorial Avenue remains the social center — about four blocks of commercial life anchored by the Grandin Theatre's neon marquee. The draw is simple: front porches, sidewalks, a neighborhood bar within walking distance. As of the 2000 census, 11,200 people lived here. What young families move here for is what the streetcar suburb built a century ago and what the civic league fought to keep.